Coupon-Clipping Student Gives $110,000 To Charity

A dollar here, some change there – coupons don’t seem to offer much at first glance. But to one young entrepreneur, they’ve added up to quite a lot: $110,000. Meet 20-year-old coupon clipper Hannah Steinberg, the founder of Our Coupons Care and now and the woman who has given a lot to charity, all thanks to coupons.

Hannah loved a reality TV show, “Extreme Couponing,” at age 14. Inspired by the show, she had a great idea. As stated on her website:

I realized that the men and women on these shows were able to stockpile many items for extremely reduced or free prices. Some even received money back on their purchases!

It made her want to start doing extreme couponing just like she saw on the show. However, being a kind teen, she started to do it her way, with a far more charitable endgame: she wanted to see how much she could do for others using her couponing hobby. And it’s with this tiny gem that Hannah took off.

Hannah Takes Off

Hannah had put together $500 from babysitting. She used this as her basis with couponing to see what she could do for those in need around her; as she humbly describes her generous contribution:

After seeing first-hand how the recession was impacting families around my community, I decided to start extreme couponing and donate all items to The Coachman Family Center, in White Plains, NY, a shelter that offers temporary housing for families that have fallen on hard times. My first few deliveries were very small and consisted of a few yogurts and some toothbrushes. But slowly, I started getting more and more donations to use towards my purchases and got better at couponing!

Inspiring A Movement

Word got out that the young girl had started collecting coupons and had used her own money to help give to those in need. It inspired the people around her to help her in this charitable action. Before she knew it, coupons and donations were coming in left and right – Hannah was in business!

In 2014, Hannah’s nonprofit organization, Our Coupons Care, was born. It’s been incredibly successful. In less than two years it has managed to donate over $110,000 worth of goods to hospitals and homeless shelters. She was recently written up in the Boston Globe, in a feature that added, “Steinberg has also donated a toiletries and household items to Boston Children’s Hospital and has led a student group at Tufts through a $4,000 donation project.”

Talk about generous! It’s no wonder she has earned a nickname from her friend Sara Taxman as “The Positive Energizer Bunny.” Hannah credits friends like Sara for helping her juggle the balance between school – because remember, she is still a 20-year-old student – and the organization’s needs. Friends help gather coupons, go on the shopping trips, and go on the monthly donation trips to said shelters and organizations. While some of her biggest donations have been during the holiday season, the organization works year round to give to others. The back to school push in 2015 was wildly successful: over 100 packages of Crayola crayons, 200 packages of markers, and hundreds of backpacks and notebooks were donated to charity. Given that the organization is headed by college student, the accomplishment is all the more inspiring.

To find out more or get involved, you can find her organization on Facebook. If you’d like to get even more inspired, why not hear about our 25 Most Charitable Celebrities? J-Lo, Usher, Miley: There’s a lot of good going on in Hollywood! Check it out.